Cabotage refers to laws or regulations that insist that national carriers transport freight or passengers within a country. A new publication indicates it is becoming more prevalent.
Cabotage in the US has been a feature of air travel for many years; it’s why we don’t see foreign airlines flying US domestic routes. But it’s perhaps more important in the case of ocean freight. For instance, Hawaii needs to have US ships transport goods. Same with Puerto Rico.
The principal argument for cabotage is to protect a nation’s logistics capacity when there’s an outside threat. That includes having trained seafarers, and a supply of vehicles or ships under control of a nation’s firms.
Cabotage has been around for centuries. Great Britain in the 1700s and 1800s had strict cabotage laws as did most other European powers of the day; France, Spain, Portugal. The laws varied, but violations of them were considered piracy. It’s hard to enforce such laws everywhere on a coastline. During the 1700s and 1800s Ireland and France did a brisk trade under the radar; recall that the Irish were not happy about British supremacy there.
In the US cabotage requires building of ships in the US, so it supports the US shipbuilding industry. It also ensures that military cargoes have US ships to carry them in case of war, as well as some trained hands for the ships.
How effective it is for these purposes is not clear, as the number of US citizen mariners has been declining for years now. It’s not that attractive a profession for many; a hard life, and constantly traveling. As a veteran of a maritime academy faculty, I am well aware of the difficulty of getting students to choose this kind of education.
It seems that most nations have cabotage laws now. The report mentioned in the story indicates a large percentage of coastlines are affected by cabotage restrictions of various kinds, with over 105 nations reporting cabotage restrictions.
The new publication is the second edition of Cabotage Laws of the World, by Hilton Staniland and Deirdre Fitzpatrick. The latter is the CEO of Seafarers Rights International (SRI), an important organization in the maritime community.
Sam Chambers October 1, 2025
https://splash247.com/cabotage-laws-now-cover-85-of-worlds-coastlines/
Supply Chain and Logistics 